Zugl.: Konstanz, Univ., Diss., 2007

In schriftlichen Texten (meist Romane) in Swahili, einer Bantusprache in Ostafrika, und in Gesprächen mit Sprechern der Sprache wurden viele Beispiele für Diminutiv- und Augmentativformen von der Substantive gefunden und analysiert. Aus inorphophonologischen Gründen ist das Diminutiv Präfix entweder ki- oder kiji- (Doppelpräfix), während das augmentative Präfix ji- oder Null. Die Bildung der Diminutiv- und Augmentativformen im Singular und Plural wird für jede Substantivklasse im Detail dargestellt. Bei Vorhandensein von zwei Diminutivformen eines Substantivs (mit ki- und kiji-), drückt die Form mit kiji- eine zusätzliche Diminutividee aus. Die Diminutive drücken im Allgemeinen Kleinheit aus, können aber auch mit einer abwertenden Bedeutung verwendet werden; wohingegen Augmentativos eine besondere Größe ausdrücken, aber auch zur Charakterisierung von nicht-menschliche Merkmale bei Personen. Wird die Betonung auf die diminutive (augmentative) Bedeutung betont wird, nehmen auch Substantive, die Lebewesen bezeichnen, die 'ki-(bzw. rna-) Konkordanz an. Die Präfixe vi- und ma--Präfixe werden auch verwendet, um Kollektivität auszudrücken. / In written texts (mostly novels) in Swahili, a Bantu language in East Africa, and talks with speakers of the language, many examples of diminutive and augmentative forms of the nouns were found and analyzed. On inorphophonological grounds, the diminutive prefix is either ki- or kiji- (double prefix), whereas the augmentative prefix is ji- or zero. The formation of the diminutive and augmentative forms in singular and plural is shown in detail for every noun class. In case of the existence of two diminutive forms of a noun (with ki- and kiji-), the form with kiji- expresses an additional diminutive idea. The diminutives express smallness in general, but can be used with a derogatory meaning; whereas augmentativos express a special hugeness, but can bo used also to characterize non-human features with persons. If emphasis is put on the diminutive (augmentative) meaning, even nouns denoting living beings take the 'ki-(resp. rna-) concords. The vi- and ma- prefixes are also used to express collectiveness.

Tamthilia ya Kiswahili imedhihirisha, kwa njia moja au nyingine, uhusiano wa kimwingilianomatini. Makala haya yanadhamiria kuchunguza viwango na aina za mwingilianomatini baina ya tamthilia mbili za Kiswahili. Tamthilia hizi ni Mashetani (Hussein 1971) na Kijiba cha Moyo (Arege 2009). Tathmini hii inaongozwa na nadharia ya mwingilanomatini. Tumeteua na kuhakiki tamthilia hizi kwa misingi kwamba, kwa muda mrefu, Ebrahim Hussein ameaminika kuwa mmojawapo wa watunzi bora wa tamthilia ya Kiswahili katika eneo la Afrika Mashariki. Wahakiki wa fasihi wanaelekea kukubalia na kwamba Ebrahim Hussein ameathiri watunzi wengi wa baadaye wa tamthilia kimtindo, kimaudhui na usawiri wahusika. Lengo la makala haya ni kujaribu kuonesha jinsi tamthilia za Mashetani na Kijiba cha Moyo zinavyofanana kwa kuchunguza viwango vya mwingilianomatini baina ya tamthilia hizo kwa kurejelea, motifu, maudhui, matumizi ya lugha, na wahusika. Je, ni kwa kiwango gani mtunzi wa Kijiba cha Moyo ameathiriwa na mtunzi wa Mashetani? Je, amemnukuu, kudondoa au kumwiga mtangulizi wake kwa kiwango gani?

Lugha ya Kiswahili imeenea na kukua kiasi cha kuweza kupambana na zingine katika ngazi za kimataifa kwenye mfumo wa sasa wa utandawazi. Hata hivyo, Kiswahili hakiwezi kupata fanaka inayotarajiwa huko nje iwapo hakithaminiwi na kudhaminiwa nyumbani (Afrika Mashariki). Bado lugha ya Kiswahili inakumbana na pingamizi nyingi mno; na miongoni mwa vikwazo hivyo ni mielekeo ya lugha inayobainika katika jamii. Makala hii inajikita zaidi katika mielekeo ya viongozi wa Afrika Mashariki, na wasomi wa Kiswahili kuhusu nafasi na umuhimu wa Kiswahili. Viongozi na wasomi wana ushawishi mkubwa sana kutokana na nafasi yao katika jamii. Wote wanaheshimika na kuenziwa; viongozi kutokana na mamlaka waliyopewa, na wasomi kwa sababu ya maarifa waliyonayo. Kutokana na ukweli huo, tabia na mienendo yao, pamoja na matamko yao mbalimbali yana athari kubwa sana katika jamii. Mara nyingi, watu wengi hupenda kuiga wayafanyayo; hali inayobainika pia katika matumizi ya lugha. Kabla ya kuijadili mielekeo na matumizi yao ya lugha, maswala mawili muhimu yanayochangia ujenzi wa hiyo mielekeo katika jamii yatazungumziwa: thamani ya lugha, na zoezi la kujifunza lugha ya pili.

Historically the culture of the Comoro Islands shows a strong relationship to the Swahili culture of the East African coast. Archeology, written and oral history have impressively documented these bonds dating back not less than a thousand years. The appearance of so called twarab in the first decades of the 20th Century once more demonstrated the closeness of this cultural imaginary that links the Comoros to the Swahili world, and beyond to include the predominantly Islamic cultures of the Western Indian Ocean. The paper is a first approach to the history of twarab on one island, Ngazidja, until the mid-1960s. It also addresses the question of language use, especially the relationship between East Coast and Comorian varieties of Swahili, and the influence of the Swahili poetic canon on the practice of Ngazidjan poets and singers. The orthography of names and place names follows Comorian conventions. A distinction is made between `twarab` and `taarab`, the former is the Comorian rendering and refers to the Comorian style, while the latter designates the East African Coast or Swahili variant.

The essay critically discusses the confusing state of the various Swahili language policies and studies brought forth in the colonial and post-colonial periods and examines the historical factors of the diversity within the Swahili language, which was once confined to the coastal area and later spread to the present area of distribution. The discussion focusses on the construction of Standard Swahili and the status of Swahili in regard to other East African languages. Special criticism is raised against recent East African and other authors, who wrote on the apparent unity of the Swahili language which they see as a result of the modern Tanzanian language policy.

Remarks on aspects of taarab such as its history, nature, definition, and change appear prominently and repeatedly in nearly every previous study of the subject. Some of these remarks, however, serve more to expose a clash of interests rather than provide untainted facts about its conceptualisation. This esseay aims at revisiting the notion of taarab in an attempt to concretise its conceptualisation on the basis of various variables that affect change in its structure. The relevant variables are convergence, divergence, linguistic constrains, formal conventions, spontaneity and preparedness in composition, actualisation and performance, instrumentation (i. e. number of instruments and how they are played), the art of vocalisation, the performer/ audience divide, stage organisation, setting, occasion, functions and media influences. For the purpose of avoiding much attention to every category of taarab, however, we prefer to take `group-styles`- hence our concentration on three phases: the period of the inception of taarab in Zanzibar, the period prior to 1905 through the 1920s up to the 1940s when the phonograph record and then the sound film was introduced, from the 1950s to the 1960s when the radio was introduced, and from the 1970s todate - the period of the impact of the tape-recorder, video-recorder, TV - and most recently the period of the influence of satellite television. Our analysis is based on theoretical conceptions of genres by Dubrow (1982), Fowler (1991), Finnegan (1976) and Okpewho (1992) in written literature and `orature`.

To refer to the origin of taarab as a direct importation of Egyptian music by the Arab upper class (Topp 1994:153) is a plausibility without solid evidence. To define it as a style of music played for entertainment at weddings and other festive occasions all along the Swahili Coast (153) is to exclude other styles of music, indeed played for entertainment at weddings and other festive occasions all along the Swahili Coast. To say that taarab contains all the features of a typical `Indian Ocean music`, combining influences from Egypt, the Arabian peninsula, India and the West with local musical practices (153) is apparently true but does not adequately capture the ambiguities and complexities of its protean nature. Refening to taarab as the Swahili popular `salon` music whose song may be recorded or, as often is the case, orally transmitted (King`ei 1992:29) is misleading, for taarab is not always `salon` music and the method and process of creating and transmitting a song in taarab is not the same as that of other forms of African music. To state that taarab has transcended its local Swahili boundaries to be consumed in other communities including other cities in East and Central Africa (Ntarangwi 1998: 150) is a valid statement from a point of view of media, change and spread, but still leaves out a lot to be said. Taarab, like so many complex living things, refuses to be thrust into neat bags or squeezed into terse all-embracing definitions. It is an ongoing process whose form(s) are amorphous, assuming different structures, roles, functions and epithets triggered by a number of factors. That notwithstanding - whatever forms, role and function taarab exhibits at different stages, its making consists of five major components or processes: the composition of the lyric, the composition of musical patterns, the extemporized performance of its song, instrumentation and audience.

As a subject of scientific interest `Western` comics (i.e. the European, American, Japanese comics) have after all achieved some recognition. From its beginnings in the 1890s the comic has been an economic success, and gradually gained importance in the contemporary cultural production of `Western´ societies. However, only with a development that finally met the tastes of a `Western´ intellectual readership, scientific treatment of comics became academically acceptable. Compared to the Western market, the production of comics in Africa is negligeable, and therefore its scientific reception almost nonexistent. This article, however preliminary, for the first time takes interest in an African comic, specifically the comics in Swahili, as a subject of its own right. Under the guise of discussing the question given in the title on two levels, I intend to present as much material as possible (without stretching copyrights too far), to give a short introduction to the theory of the comic, and to raise the reader´s interest for the Swahili comic. The first level of discussion focuses on a global perspective. Here I take a more theoretical stance, concentrating on the comic as a narrative medium, reflecting its inventory of representation and questions of reading. My main question is: What does the Swahili comic do that other comics do as well? The second level focuses on the local perspective. I look at the setting in which the comic occurs, i.e. Swahili- speaking, urban East Africa, and take into consideration the cultural embedding of the medium: What can the comic do in East Africa that other media or gemes of cultural expression (music, tv, literature, painting, theatre, etc.) do not or can not do? What is new about the comic in East Africa?

There is a wide range of contemporary publications dealing with Maji Mai War in German East Africa (1905-1907) during which mor than 100000 people lost their lives as a consequence of brutal fighting, deliberate destruction and famine. Only three of these publications were written by Africans. The Swahili text reprinted here attests the view of Mzee bin Ramadhani, the headman (liwali) of Songea town, after colonial military had gained the upper hand in June 1906. It contains polemic statements against leaders and supporters of the Maji Maji movement and depicts aspects of mutual support of colonial officers and Swahili residents from a local perspective. His article as a whole presents the colonial regime as a non-interfering and supportive factor in regard to the Swahili Diaspora. Thus it is reasonable to assume that in his eyes succesful Swahili men were at least equal in many respects (e.g. linguistic competence, social experience, religious conviction) rather than inferior according to colonial understanding.